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Friday, October 18, 2013

Pleasures Of The Damned <- -> Charles Bukowski (Poems 1951 – 1993)

the bluebird

there’s a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too tough for him, I say, stay in there, I'm not going to let anybody see you. *********

there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I pour whiskey on him and inhale cigarette smoke and the whores and the bartenders and the grocery clerks never know that he's in there. ************

there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too tough for him I say, stay down, do you want to mess me up? you want to screw up the works? you want to blow my book sales in Europe? ***********

there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too clever, I only let him out at night sometimes ***********when everybody's asleep. I say, I know that you're there, so don't be sad. ************

then I put him back, but he's singing a little in there, I haven't quite let him die and we sleep together like that with our secret pact and it's enough to make a man weep, but I don't weep, do you?

Henry Charles Bukowski, was born Heinrich Karl Bukowski on August 16,1920 a German-born American poet, novelist and short story writer. As a writer he used his home city of Los Angeles as his muse, writing poetry from the viewpoint of the poor, the homeless, the bums on skid row and the bar flies strung out on booze. In his lifetime Bukowski wrote constantly, amassing thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, he would eventually publish more than forty-five books of poetry and prose - earning the title of the "laureate of American lowlife" from Time magazine. In the poem “ A poem is a city” he states that:

“a poem is a city filled with streets and sewers filled with saints, heroes, beggars, madmen, filled with banality and booze,”

This seems to be an apt description of his poetry and as such came to define the man himself, as though he was setting himself up as the “eternal loser”, the patron saint of the lost and lonely – yet he goes on to say in this same poem

“and now I stick this under glass for the mad editor’s scrutiny,”

Thus acknowledging his role in the process, as an onlooker, placing an image onto a Petri dish magnified, dissected and defined for our perusal, a knowing glance at us the reader, of his own role in the drama on the page.

Woman on the Street

her shoes themselveswould light my room like many candles.

*********

she walks like all things shining on glass, like all things that make a difference.

*******

she walks away.

This is what makes Bukowski as a writer interesting, and makes me think that the first poem on this page sums up my perception of this poet, there’s a bravado, a vulgarity that is merely surface, whilst just below the surface is the real poet, trapped in a web of his own creation, although willingly.

about the PEN conference

take a writer away from his typewriter and all you have left is the sickness which started him typing in the beginning.

Pleasures of the Damned , is probably the definitive collection of Charles Bukowski’s poetry, and as such will come to define any future perception of him as a poet. This is not a bad thing as it was compiled by John Martin who was Buksowski’s editor for most of his career & also the man who convinced him to leave his post office job and become a writer. Publishing his work first as Black Sparrow Press and since it closed in 2002, for Ecco.

For this collection Martin read through over 2500 poems and whittled them down to around 270, which in his opinion constitute the “Best of”, making The Pleasures of the Damned, a celebration of Charles Bukowski’s life and his poetry, raising a glass to the writer and the whores, hookers, barflies and bums who danced through his words.

Van Gogh

vain vanilla ladies strutting while Van Gogh did it to himself.

girls pulling on silk hose while Van Gogh did it to himself in the field

I had never heard of Bukowski but I really like the verse that you have posted. the bluebird is indeed very insightful. It certainly apples to poets but I think that it applies to many other people too.

Hi Mel this is a good place to start & you can see how that individuals life would chime with him.

Hello Brian, yes it would, but with this writer it has added depth to how he saw himself or how he projected himself.

Hi Violet, whilst checking him out for this piece, I read that he was more worried that his editor/publisher would die before him & wouldn't be around to publish his works. He was more concerned about his possible legacy than his day to day reality - I think that definitely shows his intent.